MP fears health funding not keeping up with growth

The Victorian Opposition's health spokesman, Gavin Jennings, says funding has not kept pace with growth in West Gippsland.

The West Gippsland Healthcare Group's annual report shows it did not meet all elective surgery targets and there has been a big increase in the number of babies born.

Mr Jennings says it shows the Warragul Hospital needs more Government funding.

"Even though they're working harder, they're delivering all these babies, families are being supported for that, unfortunately there's not enough money to go around to keep up with the pace of elective surgery, in particular, and pressures in the emergency department," he said.

"The services need to grow with demand.

"So there's been more than 1,000 births at West Gippsland Health in the last year - that's an extraordinary growth rate.

"The number of births has grown by more than 9 per cent and what we've actually seen is the growth funding for the hospital network is actually growing far less than that."

Health Minister David Davis says the Government has spent more than $8 million on the Warragul Hospital since coming into government.

He says that is a 17 per cent funding increase.

"A significant budget increase across the period," he said.

"It's true that there's population growth in West Gippsland and we're very aware of that and hence the significant increases in funding."